Obama's decision to appoint Rice and Power in the face of the mounting scandals surrounding his presidency generally and his foreign policy particularly is not the only reason Israeli leaders should not expect for his weakened political position to diminish Obama's plan to put the screws on Israel in the coming years.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the IRS is busy. After all, they have a lot of work to do to make up the Obama administration’s $1 trillion yearly deficit. But that hasn’t stopped them from targeting tea party groups and denying their non-profit applications.

When you hear that Congress has taken up the “farm bill,” what images come to mind? Farmers in overalls, driving beat-up tractors, trying to scratch out a living from the soil? A lot of politicians are counting on that.

When working to educate Americans on what the future of medicine would look like in an Obamacare world, our coalition of concerned parents warned of the effects of rationing and government red-tape for those most vulnerable among us. Now, sadly, even before it's in full implementation next year, we're seeing first-hand the result of this government bureaucracy.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. About a half a dozen Republican presidential candidates run simultaneously, each of them laying claim to being the true “conservative” in the race. On the other hand, just one party establishment candidate runs on no issue other than the myth of electability. With the conservative grassroots split several different ways among multiple candidates, said party establishment candidate goes on to win a series primaries to eventually clinch the nomination.

On the first Friday of each month, the financial markets, the mainstream media, and, in fact, the whole world eagerly await the U.S. monthly jobs report. With sleight of hand, the president takes full credit for all the newly created jobs.

When President Richard Nixon collided with the Watergate scandal, he was a very unpopular man. The nation at the time was suffering one of the worst recessions in history and one of the highest inflation rates, too. So Watergate sunk Dick Nixon, but for good measure, the economy sunk him even more.

Another day, another example of government overreach. Even George Orwell might find what the government is doing somewhat creepy. John also talked to Shaun McCutcheon about campaign finance limits, and how they need to change.

Fri, Jun 07, 2013

A veteran member of the U.S. Army Band said he is facing retribution and punishment from the military for having anti-Obama bumper stickers on his car, reading books written by conservative authors like Mark Levin and David Limbaugh, and serving Chick-fil-A sandwiches at his promotion party.

There is no evidence at this time that President Obama or any White House officials had any direct knowledge of the IRS targeting as it started or was actively ongoing. But just as with Watergate, there are many loose ends and unanswered oddities that keep popping up.

Because trust in President Obama is eroding faster than the Cleveland Indians’ standing in the AL East, support for serious surveillance of jihadists is being undermined. How quickly is the president’s stock falling on the left?

Touchy, touchy. Despite Team Anthony Weiner's best efforts at political rehabilitation, there's just no way to shore up his sorest scandal spot. As the New York Post reported this week, Weiner had a bit of a snit fit when a local Democratic official boldly slammed his sexting habits with underage girls.

For a movement that gets queasy at the thought of most war, the modern left surely fancies itself as experts on what war looks like-- and through their eyes, war breaks out at the very glint of opposition to their agenda.

The specter of school shootings has brought a too-typical staple to local newspaper sections: the boys disciplined at (or suspended from) grade school for bringing a toy gun or anything resembling a gun.

Just because government could, in theory, poison people
doesn't mean it shouldn't, in practice, inoculate people. But we're in
uncharted territory, and a healthy dose of old-fashioned American
skepticism seems warranted, no matter who's in charge.

Just try to wrap your arms around the magnitude of defiance and chutzpah that led to and accompanied President Obama's appointment of the discredited Susan Rice as national security adviser. But don't let this outrage distract you from his equally disturbing appointment of leftist Samantha Power to replace Rice as UN ambassador.

The age of 20 to 30 is more "post-adolescent" than grown-up. Young adults put off moving past the traditional benchmarks -- a job with benefits, marriage, and the responsibilities of motherhood and fatherhood. But how does it affect culture and personal relationships when a man has a diminished role in a woman's heart and at the family hearth?

Suddenly, Democrats are in a tither about wasteful government spending. At hearings this week into the IRS's misuse of taxpayer dollars to fund staff junkets, Rep. Elijah Cummings, ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, bemoaned, "The money that was spent on that -- that's my money! That's the lady who got the early bus this morning.

The apologists for this administration in the press corps responded predictably enough as one scandal after another was unfolding in Washington: They went after those who revealed the scandals, not those who perpetrated them.

The pro-Common Core forces have all the resources and power in the world to implement national standards with a national curriculum following closely behind. And those forces will likely win in places like Tennessee because they’re able to shape the message with poll-tested phrases.

There’s a song that says “don’t let it go to your head, no.” Perhaps First Lady Michelle Obama and President Obama should listen to its lyrics. It seems America’s first black president -- as well as his wife -- have gotten so used to the coddling from the mainstream media that they believe they’re above criticism or heckling.

Government just can’t help it. . . They want banks, insurance companies, and financial companies to operate like public utilities. Diane Katz, with the Heritage Foundation, joined the program to talk about yet another government agency that has set out to make life difficult for businesses.

Thu, Jun 06, 2013

The Freedom From Religion Foundation blasted what it called the “open defiance” of a valedictorian who delivered The Lord’s Prayer during a high school graduation ceremony last Saturday in South Carolina.

Back during the Bush administration, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage famously called Hezbollah the “A Team of terrorists,” adding, “al-Qaeda is actually the B Team.” How do these two organizations compare today?

People, of course, need help. A humane society does not ignore those who cannot or even will not fend for themselves. But good faith does not substitute for sound policy. The welfare state is an assault on families.

It made the papers, but was covered far from sufficiently, when Elisha “Ray” Nance died a few years ago at the age of 94. You may never have heard of him, but he was well known around Bedford, Virginia, a picturesque town located at the feet of the Blue Ridge Peaks of Otter. He delivered mail in that neck of the woods for many years. But it was for what he did before becoming a letter carrier that he should be best remembered.

Proponents of journalist shield laws argue that certain regulations actually limit the power of government by protecting the First Amendment rights of the press. But that begs the question - a journalist shield law must define who is a journalist and who isn't.

Eric Holder was not appointed by the president, under the constitution, to decide cases on the basis of the national economy; nor on the amount of money that donors make to Obama’s campaign; nor yet on the basis of race, creed, and unmanned aerial-vehicle make, model and armaments configuration

During the Depression and the rise of fascism in Europe, Sinclair Lewis wrote the novel "It Can't Happen Here," his warning about how fragile democracy is and how easily it can be replaced by dictatorship. Obamacare has the potential for becoming a type of dictatorship.

Ruth Asawa's "San Francisco Fountain" owes Apple big time. Before the tech behemoth announced its plans to plop a slick, glassy Apple Store where Levi's and the fountain plaza reside, many locals were blithely unaware of the bronze landmark.

I am in Positano, Italy, on the Tyrrhenian Sea, soaking up the sun and pondering the immensities. Pompeii is just down the road, or over the mountain, or somewhere nearby, and it seems to me that Pompeii is the future for America if things continue under Barack the Pitiable, not Rome as the left-wingers and the right-wingers seem to have agreed upon.

With two more liberal state legislatures (Minnesota and Delaware) overturning true marriage, and even the Boy Scouts succumbing to corporate pressures, some defenders of marriage might feel that our movement is running out of gas. But then there’s the vote of ExxonMobil stockholders to uphold marriage. They voted by a 4-1 margin. That should help fuel opposition to this radical social experiment.

Neal McClusky, with Cato, joined the program to talk about the run-away tuition costs, and the declining value of American Higher Education. John also took a look at how the student loan crises in America is just another symptom of big government at its worst.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, another in the long line of Mario Draghi-and-Ben Bernanke clones, has reconfirmed that the only way to get out of an economic hole is by digging the hole deeper, that is if you’re of the Keynesian bent.

In a typically maladroit statement, U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry recently complained that Israelis are too contented to end their conflict with the Palestinians: "People in Israel aren't waking up every day and wondering if tomorrow there will be peace because there is a sense of security and a sense of accomplishment and of prosperity."

Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc thanked the main opposition parties because their leaders yesterday and today called on the protestors to channel their demands through elections, instead of civil disorder.

Wed, Jun 05, 2013

Instead of showing endless loops of IRS employees wasting taxpayer dollars line-dancing -- Breaking news: Government employees waste millions of your dollars every single day! -- I think it would be more useful for the public to hear a few crucial facts about the exploding scandal at the Internal Revenue Service.

As a Jewish person who has written about anti-Semitism, I have no problem using the term when it is merited. But there are certainly times when an offended Jewish person wrongly labels something as anti-Semitic, which only leads to more negative stereotyping of Jews.

When it comes to global trade, free-marketeers like it simple: no tariffs, no subsidies. But the most well-intended, highly-principled policy proposals always buck up against stark political and economic realities—and never was this more true than when it comes to the global market for sugar.

As William Shakespeare proclaimed in Richard II, the most valued earthly treasure capable of being possessed by a man is a “spotless reputation.” As true as this axiom is for an individual person, it is even more apt for a lawyer; and infinitely more so for a powerful government agency populated with lawyers and clothed with the authority to reduce a man’s liberty to nil.

Everyone recognizes the greatness of a relief pitcher like Mariano Rivera, but how many recognize the greatness of a general who can come into a military situation that looks hopeless and rescue the troops and the country from utter disaster?

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes. Welcome to the Summer of Belated Epiphanies. Media lapdogs are finally, finally arriving at the conclusion that maybe this isn't the most transparent administration in world history, after all.

You have written demanding an apology for my recent characterization of the Mormon religion as "non-Christian." I am happy to write a public letter of apology to you and to the countless Mormon readers who responded negatively to my characterization.

In recent years, text-message techno-lingo has added another layer to the overgrowth covering a once muscular, colorful, ever alive and adaptable language -- until you have to wonder if there's still a language somewhere underneath all of that mass trying to get out. Or has it simply rotted away?

John talks about Americans holding on to their cash – and why the Government is not entitled to most of it. Also, Luke Gelber – with Citizens Against Government Waste – spoke to John about the GSA wasting more of the taxpayer’s hard earned money.

The numbers of Hizballah fighters in Syria are significant for a non-state militia force. However, the numbers are not large relative to the impact Hizballah fighters have had in changing the momentum of the fight in the government's favor.

Every day, millions of American consumers go shopping. In the process, they compare the prices and quality of goods and services ranging from groceries to cellular telephone service to fast food to housing. But that daily ritual changes when it comes to comparing prices for medical care — the only major sector of our economy where consumers typically do not make decisions based on comparison shopping.

Tue, Jun 04, 2013

To believe the media narrative, the "Arab Spring" has arrived in yet another Islamic nation -- Turkey this time -- snowballing at record speed from a single protest over the fate of trees under an urban-development plan. This simplistic explanation might have more merit if Turkey wasn't the staging ground for Western interests in Syria.

Obamacare is going to be superior to the current health care system in every way and anything people heard to the contrary was obviously a lie cooked up by Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and the Tea Party to hurt poor people.

One of the many sad signs of our times is the way current immigration issues are discussed. A hundred years ago, the immigration controversies of that era were discussed in the context of innumerable facts about particular immigrant groups. Many of those facts were published in a huge, multi-volume 1911 study by a commission headed by Senator William P. Dillingham.

On Memorial Day weekend, 2 million people marched in protests against seed giant Monsanto for the purpose of bringing awareness to hazards from genetically modified food, which it and other companies manufacture. Organizer Tami Canal said protests were held in 436 cities in 52 countries.

Isn't it rich that the White House is accusing Attorney General Eric Holder's critics of being "partisans who seem more interested in launching political attacks than cooperating with him to protect the security and constitutional rights of the American people"?

In the course of his rambling monologue on national security policy delivered at the National Defense University, President Obama gave only glancing attention to the most significant military undertaking of his term in office -- the Afghanistan war.

The Gang of Eight can't defend the Gang's own amnesty bill, S.744, or even explain it to public or TV audiences. The Gang's premier salesman, Senator Marco Rubio, admits that it isn't acceptable in its present form and must be amended on the Senate floor.

The root of the unrest is the growing lack of empowerment for secular interests and people who are less devout Muslims. Turkish youths and city dwellers who support the protests are railing against the actions of a legitimately elected president and parliament.

Warren Buffett, throughout his illustrious career has repeatedly said, “Don’t bet against America.” A wonderful statement, but given some of our erratic history, one needs to ask the question “why not?” The answer is relatively basic: Americans know how to adapt.

Jonathon Moseley, who wrote an article on Benghazi for the American Thinker, spoke with John about a few of the blatant lies that have been thrown forward regarding the death of Ambassador Stevens. John also talked about the “Happiness Index” and why the “recovery” isn’t impacting most Americans.

Detroit, once one of the nation's most vibrant cities, faces imminent bankruptcy. That's the headline from the report last month of emergency fiscal manager Kevyn Orr, issued 45 days after he was appointed this spring by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to take over the city's government.

The GSA has suddenly gone all “Eric Holder” on Congress, testifying to the House subcommittee that the broken lease won’t cost taxpayers a dime, when in fact it will cost at least $250 million- or more.

On Memorial Day, tears were shed as programs across the country honored and prayed for those men and women who sacrificed their dreams in order that we might live out our own. Some Americans who had lost a son or daughter, a spouse, or a parent never got to see their loved one reach their full potential. Those soldiers who died left their dreams in their graves.

Sir John Dalberg-Acton famously observed, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” No federal agency enjoys more power than the “absolute power” wielded by the Internal Revenue Service. It’s little wonder, then, that under this power-drunk Obama regime, the IRS has become “corrupted absolutely.”

This past week has been pretty devastating for me as a long-time supporter of the Boy Scouts. My own two sons grew up in Scouting, and, with their hard work and encouragement from my wonderful husband who was a Scout Master, they both achieved the rank of Eagle Scout.

Democrats are practically pleading with President Obama to sharpen his message. After successfully raising taxes on every working American at the beginning of the year, the progressive movement has suffered one debilitating blow after another

A new group is emerging that may finally change the way Family Courts treat mothers and fathers. Currently, the default in most states is to award the lion's share of the time with the children to mothers, and require the father to pay child support.

According to a survey conducted by Prudential Financial, the majority of American women are now the breadwinners in their households. More than 1400 women were surveyed; 40% of them were single or divorced, 53% of them were the breadwinners in their households and one quarter of the married women said that they earned more than their husbands.

I object to paying $95 per barrel of oil when the economy should be supporting prices closer to $55 per barrel. The $40 difference is mainly attributable to Obama and his nutty professors, like Dr. Stephen Chu, who thinks $5.00 a gallon gasoline would be a swell idea.

Sen. Barbara Boxer says she is co-sponsoring the Genetically Engineered Food Right-to-Know Act in part because, with 26 states trying to pass legislation requiring said labeling, it makes more sense to have a uniform federal law.

The mess the IRS has gotten itself in has been fascinating. Having all these commentators writing about the Service from high above the earth offers great entertainment. I have been working with the Service since 1979. Let me offer you some first-hand perspective.

So a school district, that has already lost in a lower court, attempting to ban both religious belief and free expression thereof, now wants to spend tax-payer money to attempt to thwart those same rights of religious belief, and free expression.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, a former prosecutor and judge, is pleading ignorance of the law as his excuse for criminally accusing a journalist of being a journalist. Holder wants Congress to pass a law to shield the press from him.

Environmentalists have been crying “wolf” for so long that the public has become immune to their scare tactics—the disasters predicted at the first Earth Day haven’t happened and despite increasing CO2, the climate hasn’t warmed for 17 years.